How William hoodwinked his own commanding officer over stag party trip in a £10m Chinook

Emails show that Prince William, pictured during RAF training, told no one where he was taking the helicopter

Secret emails reveal that Prince William misled his superiors over trips in military helicopters costing £50,000 - while allowing officers to take the blame.

The email records reignite the row which erupted after the Prince flew a Chinook to the Isle of Wight in April to attend the pre-wedding celebrations of his cousin Peter Phillips - and stopped to pick up his brother Harry on the way.

At the time the RAF tried to justify the trip, which cost £8,716, as a legitimate training flight.

But documents released after a Freedom of Information request disclose that furious officers only discovered the true reason for his trip when it was reported in the media.

On April 17, six days after the Isle of Wight jaunt, an email was sent by a senior officer at William's base to a superior in response to a request for 'an elbow brief (military slang for a succinct overview of a 'situation' which can be kept in a pocket) ... of the facts surrounding the Golden Kestrel sortie' from William's training base at RAF Odiham in Hampshire.

Golden Kestrel was the codename given to William's flight training.

While publicly the RAF and royal aides were playing down the issue, insisting no rules had been broken, behind the scenes an angry blame game had started.

The email makes clear that the Prince's training project officer and crew 'were not aware of why PW (Prince William) was going to the Isle of Wight' because the 'convention during his stay with ODI (Odiham) has been to not enquire into his time off duty'.

When the row first erupted, it was claimed by unnamed MoD officials that Odiham's station commander, Group Captain Andy Turner, would face 'stern words' for allowing the trip.

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But the email makes clear that Group Capt Turner was 'not aware of the detail' of the trip and if he had been aware of 'the true nature of the weekend the sortie would not have been flown and alternative means of transport would have taken PW to the IoW'.

It concludes: 'The Stn Cdr (Station Commander) has spoken to all Fg Execs (Flying Executives, senior officers on the base) yesterday to ensure that his stn continues to take account of potential "Daily Mail" moments.'

Three days after the email was sent, it was revealed in newspaper reports that William had flown a Chinook and landed it in the grounds of his girlfriend Kate Middleton's family home in Berkshire. The cost to the taxpayer was again £8,716.

This flight was defended on the grounds that 'battlefield helicopter crews routinely practise landing in fields and confined spaces away from their airfields as a vital part of their training for operations'.

Secret report: An email detailing the probe into William's Isle of Wight flight

Another document, dated April 19, 2008 and called 'summary of Project Golden Kestrel - media interest brief', gives details of both 'contentious sorties'.

Flight 115677 is described as the 'approach and landing (on the ground for 30-60 secs) at field owned by Mr Middleton'.

A section of text is then deleted, before it continues: 'No one got on or off the aircraft whilst in the field.'

The 'contentious content' of Flight 116636 is described as 'pick-up of Prince Harry and delivery of both to Isle of Wight, unknown to supervisory chain, to enable attendance at stag event.'

Under 'actions', the unnamed author said he had 'counselled Flt Lt XXXXXXX on his errors in judgment' and had 'spoken to the Chinook Force ... to raise awareness of unintended consequences'.

The Prince took three other 'personal' flights during his April training: a trip over his father's country home at Highgrove, a 'buzzing' of the Queen's Sandringham home and a trip to a wedding in Northumberland. The cost of the 'contentious' flights was more than £50,000.

The negative publicity led to another email being sent on April 22. The names of the senders and recipients have again been blanked out.

It is headed 'in confidence: Golden Kestrel' and notes that 'the past few days have been somewhat bumpy for many... Can I therefore ask you to ensure that no activity takes place with PW that could be misconstrued by the media, however well intentioned. PW should not be given any "special" favours over and above his agreed programme.'

A Chinook from RAF Odiham like the one the Prince flew to attend the party

A spokesman for the pressure group Republic, which campaigns for an elected head of State, and asked for and obtained the emails from the MoD, said: 'Anyone else using a flight to go to a stag party would have been severely disciplined. We would like to know why disciplinary action was not taken against Prince William.

'Our enquiries have shown that William's commanding officers were not made aware of the purpose of his flights to the Isle of Wight.

'William has abused his position and status to take advantage of military aircraft for his own personal use. It is a serious admission that William's flight would not have been allowed if his commanding officer had known the true purpose of the trip.

'It says a lot about William's attitude to his military postings and the way Royals are given special treatment in the armed forces.'

Prince William's most expensive Chinook flight was made on Friday, April 4, when he flew for four hours and 15 minutes from RAF Odiham to Hexham in Northumberland at a cost of £18,522.

He was en route to the wedding in the Scottish border town of Kelso the following day of Iona Douglas-Home, an old friend from St Andrews University. After landing, another pilot flew his aircraft back to base.

'In retrospect, there was a degree of naivety involved in the planning of these sorties but there is no question that anyone misled anyone.

'When Prince William departed the aircraft following his instructional leg of the sortie the crew would have known that it was for private matters but would not have known the precise nature of them. The RAF rule in place at that time was that they did not enquire into his private life.'

A spokesman for Clarence House said: 'Prince William takes his share of responsibility for what happened.'

Last night Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland said: 'This is taxpayers' money being spent on important military equipment at a time when there are real concerns about insufficient expenditure on resources for our forces.'